


Turning Page | Reylo AU

by aidenfiftyone



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Art School, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Hint of Stormpilot, Oneshot, Reylo - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-14
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2019-03-04 20:02:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13372068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aidenfiftyone/pseuds/aidenfiftyone
Summary: “That’s the problem! Don’t you understand my predicament? I’m practically in love with this guy and I’m never going to see him again.”~Rey is attending art college, and her best friend Finn convinces her to take a figure drawing class, assuring her that everything will be fine. Little does she know, it might be a little difficult to concentrate on her drawing, considering the subject...





	Turning Page | Reylo AU

“You’re doing _what_?!”

 

“Mom, it’s not that big of a deal.” Ben absentmindedly played with his fork, mushing up the cooked vegetables on his plate.

 

“You’re telling me that you don’t think getting naked in front of strangers is a big deal?” Leia demanded.

 

“Sweetheart, if the kid wants to get naked in front of strangers, then what can we do to stop him? He’s an adult,” Han said, before taking another sip of his beer.

 

“I’m not doing it because I want to get naked in front of strangers. I’m doing it because I need money. The vacuum company doesn’t pay nearly enough.” Ben avoided eye contact with his mother. “Weren’t you the one who wanted me out of here? I’m done school. I shouldn’t be living with my parents anymore.”

 

“Honey, when I said that, I didn’t mean you should resort to such… promiscuous methods.”

 

“Promiscuous? Mom, it’s a figure drawing class, not a strip club.”

 

Han snorted.

 

“How long has this been going on?” Leia asked.

 

Ben shrugged. “I’ve only been to two or three classes so far. The people are really nice.”

 

“And you’re going to continue?”

 

“I like the job. It pays well, and I don’t have to do much besides sit still, so I don’t see any reason to quit.”

 

“I just don’t know about it, Ben. Some people are real creeps.”

 

“I’ve been to enough figure drawing classes to know that none of the art students care about the models. The students are just there to do their job. They see you as, like, a statue. Not a person. It’s not creepy. It’s… a noble profession.” Ben stared at his plate as he spoke, building his mashed potatoes up into a tiny mountain.

 

Leia sighed, and her expression softened. “You’re an adult, and it’s your decision, so I technically can’t stop you, but… I worry about you. You know I do.”

 

“I know.” Ben stood up, picking up his plate and giving his mother a kiss on the head as he left the dining room to put his plate in the sink.

 

~

 

“I don’t know about this, Finn,” Rey said, fidgeting with her kneadable eraser, rolling into a small ball between her fingers. The two students were sitting on the floor of the hallway, waiting for their class to start.

 

“Rey, don’t worry about it. You’ve drawn tons of people before. I see your portraits all the time. They’re amazing! Don’t even worry.”

 

“Yeah, but I’ve never drawn someone without their clothes on,” Rey countered. “I don’t care if my drawing turns out any good, I just don’t want to be sitting two feet away from a stranger who is completely _naked_.”

 

Finn chuckled. “I know that it sounds like it’s uncomfortable, but it’s really not. Maybe it will be for the first few minutes, but then you just completely forget about it. And if you’re worried about the model being really attractive or something, and making you all embarrassed, that’s not going to happen. The models are usually pretty old, and they’re all butt-ugly.”

 

That made Rey laugh quietly, but she still felt slightly nervous.

 

“If we have the same model as we did last time, then you definitely have nothing to worry about,” Finn assured her, “he’s certainly not _my_ type, is all I’m gonna say. Too sad and broody.”

 

“He?” Rey asked. She had been hoping the model would be a woman, to at least relieve the awkwardness slightly.

 

“Rey. _It’ll be fine._ ” Finn stood up, and offered a hand to Rey to help her up, as people were starting arrive and were walking into the art class. Rey gathered up her belongings and her courage, and stepped inside. There were several easels set up in a large circle surrounding a rectangular platform in the center. A few people had already claimed spots. Rey could hear some Debussy playing softly in the background.

 

“Good afternoon everyone, please come in and choose a seat,” the professor said from the front of the class, “and remember, there are no bad positions, so don’t worry about trying to choose the ‘best seat’. All are equally valuable to your learning.”

 

Rey had taken art classes with this specific teacher before, Ms. Holdo; she’d just never taken a figure drawing class before. Ms. Holdo was by far one of Rey’s favourite teachers in the entire art college that she attended: she was a tall, graceful woman, with lavender coloured hair that came to her shoulders. She was sincere and more knowledgeable than she seemed.

 

“Let’s sit over here,” Finn said, gesturing to one section of the class that was illuminated by the daylight from the large windows. Rey followed him, and sat down at the easel next to him, arranging her sketchpad and drawing tools. For the next few minutes, Rey sat at her easel in suspense, waiting for the last few people to come into the class so it could start. She found herself nervously tapping her fingers on her leg in an erratic beat.

 

After what seemed like forever, all of the spots were filled, and Ms. Holdo quietly walked out of the room. When she came back, a man was with her, wearing a black robe, and as he walked in, she closed the door behind him, and he followed her to the front of the class.

 

“All right, everyone,” Ms. Holdo said, smiling brightly, “I think we’re just about ready to start. This is Ben; he just graduated last year, and he’s been coming back for the past few weeks to model for us.”

 

Ben gave a small wave to the class. He was taller than Ms. Holdo, and he had long dark hair and dark eyes to match. At first, Rey was confused; didn’t Finn say that everyone was old and/or ugly? This model seemed to be neither.

 

Rey leaned over to Finn. “Is this the model you were talking about?” She whispered.

 

Finn nodded, which only served to confuse her more.

 

“So,” Ms. Holdo continued, “today we’re going to be doing about a fifty-minute sustained drawing in conté. Take your time; it’s not a race. Put up your hand if you need any help, and I’ll come over. Okay? Good.”

 

Ms. Holdo turned to talk to Ben, and they discussed something quietly, after which Ben picked up a chair and placed it in the center of the platform. He walked back over to one of the tables at the front of the room, and took off his robe. He was facing away from Rey, but she still couldn’t help but blush; she could see just from his back that he was quite muscular. She wanted to bury her face in her sketchbook, but she resisted the temptation, and instead focused on writing the date on her paper, just so that she had an excuse to look away.

 

When she looked back, Ben was sitting on the chair diagonally from her, giving her a three-quarter view of him. He had his right arm draped over the back of the chair, while his left arm lay in his lap. His head was turned to look over his shoulder, and unfortunately, his gaze was precisely in Rey’s direction. For a moment, they made eye contact, but he blinked and looked away, his eyes seeming to search for anything to look at that wasn’t her.

 

‘Great,’ Rey thought, ‘Two minutes in and I’ve already managed to embarrass the model and myself.’

 

Rey tried to cast her thoughts aside and began work on the drawing, starting to sketch the basic outlines of the top of his body. She stuck out her thumb in front of her, turning it one way and then the other, to visually measure him. She was lucky that she had a lot of previous experience with drawing other people, so she had no trouble figuring out what to do. The only problem was, she had to really look at him. Drawing basic shapes wasn’t an issue, but all of a sudden she had to start filling in the details of his torso, his arms, his strong but solemn face, and his muscular legs. She considered herself truly lucky that the position he was in prevented her from seeing much of what was going on… downstairs. Once the lines were in place, she began to shade her drawing, and found herself taking some liberties with the shadows. He gave off a very tense energy, so Rey added a lot of contrast between the highlights on his body and the darkest shadows. She finished faster than she thought she would; there were still fifteen minutes left in the class, and she already filled in every freckle and worry line, so there was nothing to do but to sit there and look at him.

 

Finn was right: the longer she spent in the class, the more comfortable she felt about watching him, until she was full-on staring. His pale skin, illuminated by the daylight, seemed flawless. One strand of his black hair was strewn across his face. Eventually she noticed something that’s she had forgot to include in the drawing: Ben had a small scar under his right eye, that ran down the side of his face. It was almost invisible in this light, but she added it to her drawing anyway.

 

Ben seemed to be getting tired after such a long time of sitting in the same position. He took a moment to stretch his neck, turning his head one way and then the other, and while he did so, he locked eyes with Rey, but this time he didn’t look away.

 

~

 

Ever since Ben first sat down, he couldn’t help but notice _her_. She had shoulder-length, slightly wavy brown hair that she had tucked behind her ears. Her features were perfect; her face looked as if it was made of glass, and she seemed to almost glow with a warm light.

 

Ben couldn’t help but feel self-conscious as he sat there and he watched her scribble something on her page. When she finally looked up, her eyes seemed to travel from the top of his body to the bottom and then back up again. He tried not to let himself blush. Eventually they made eye contact, and Ben hurriedly looked away, trying to focus on something on the wall or the ground, and wondering how he’d ever make it through the next hour if he had to avoid her glance, especially while he was practically facing her. Luckily for him, she seemed to get wrapped up in her work pretty quickly. That’s when he began to play a game: every time she’d look down at her paper, he’d look at her, and whenever she looked up, he’d look away. Through the short bursts of time when he was able to look at her, he noticed that her tongue stuck out of the side of her mouth slightly when she was concentrating, and she scrunched up her nose a little bit too.

 

Eventually it got to a point where the girl didn’t look down for a really long time. Ben could only see her slightly through his peripheral vision, and she seemed to just be staring at him. He kept his neck strained slightly in a position so that he could still see her without her knowing, but it was tiring, and eventually he couldn’t help but stretch, and move his head one way and then the other. As he returned to his original position, he couldn’t help but meet her glance, and this time he didn’t look away.

 

She had the loveliest warm brown eyes. He hadn’t had the chance to really see them before, but now he remarked how the daylight shone through them. Ben tried to analyze her expression; what was she thinking when she looked at him? Probably that he looked strange, as he knew for a fact that most of the other students thought. Ben didn’t care, though; as long as he could continue looking at her, it didn’t matter what he looked like.

 

After what seemed like an eternity of her just sitting there, maintaining eye contact with him, she looked back to her page. Ben couldn’t help but feel disappointed. He returned his gaze to the wall where he was looking before. As if on cue, the timer beeped. ‘Has it really been an hour already?’ he thought.

 

Ben removed his arm from its position where it was draped over the back of the chair, and rubbed his wrist with his other hand. He desperately wanted to look back up at the girl again, wondering if he’d catch her looking at him, but he resisted the temptation, and instead stood up, walking back over to the table at the front and putting on his robe.

 

The professor began speaking to the class, asking them to return their books to the front for feedback. The students started to clean up, bringing their work to the teacher’s desk. Ben focused on taking the chair off the platform in the center, and he returned it to the corner of the room. By that time, the majority of the students had handed in their work. Ben watched carefully as the last few students laid down their books, taking note of which book was the girl’s. As she passed by, she made eye contact with him, and her mouth opened slightly, as if she was going to say something, but she was interrupted by her friend taking her hand and pulling her in the direction of the door. “Come on, Rey,” he said, and with that, they were gone.

 

 _Rey._ The name echoed in Ben’s mind. He’d wished so desperately he’d heard what she was going to say, if only to hear what her voice sounded like.

 

“Ben?”

 

He looked up to see Amilyn, the professor, speaking to him. “Would you like to see some of the work?” She asked. “We have a lot of very skilled students in this class.”

 

Ben nodded, and she took some of the books out of the pile, flipping to the page with the most recent rendering on it, and laying a few out on the table so that he could see. Ben looked them over, admiring how some of them were more interpretive and fluid, while others were detailed and exact. He watched as the professor took out one book in particular. His breath hitched slightly as she laid it on the table next to the others. “Who drew this one?” he asked, but he already knew the answer.

 

It was beautiful; the line quality was flawless. She had created dark shadows that cast his figure in a tense lighting. He noticed that she had even included the thin scar right below his eye.

 

“Rey,” Amilyn answered, with a smile. “It’s really quite remarkable, isn’t it? She’s got quite the knack for capturing people. I think it’s the way that she draws eyes that’s my favourite.” She gestured with her pinky finger at the details of the face. “They’re just so…” She searched for the right word, “…alluring.” She laughed. “And to think, she’s never done figure drawing before.”

 

“This is her first time?” Ben asked in disbelief, looking up at the professor.

 

“Yup. She’s done portraits before, so she doesn’t lack experience, but as far as I know she’s never attended a figure drawing class before today.”

 

“Do you think she’ll be back?” Ben couldn’t help but ask. “Because she’s so fantastic at it,” he added, to ward off any suspicion.

 

Amilyn shrugged. “I honestly don’t know. Figure drawing’s not for everyone.”

 

Ben came to the halting realization that he may never see her again. “I should probably get going,” he told the professor. “I’ve got a dentist appointment.” It was a lie, but he was worried he’d come off as rude if he ran out for no reason at all.

 

“All right. Thanks again for today,” she replied with a warm smile, and began to clean up. Ben smiled back before disappearing into the back room to change into his clothes, after which he darted out the door.

 

~

 

“Finn, you promised me that the model would be old and ugly!” Rey demanded the minute that they had left the hallway and were in the stairwell, approaching the bottom of the stairs.

 

Finn laughed. “Well, he’s not old, but he’s also certainly not pretty.”

 

Rey blinked in disbelief. “What? You’re telling me that you don’t think he’s attractive? Not…” She gestured emphatically to her body. “…any of it?”

 

He shook his head. “Rey, I don’t know why you’re so worried. They switch out the models all the time. Next week they’ll probably have someone different.”

 

“That’s the problem! Don’t you understand my predicament? I’m practically in love with this guy and I’m never going to see him again.”

 

Finn rolled his eyes. “Are you listening to yourself? You’re not in love with him. You’ve just seen him naked. Believe me, there’s a difference. You’re hardly in a Shakespearean tragedy.”

 

Rey sighed. “I’m obviously exaggerating, I know that. I just… can’t the bear the thought of never having a conversation with him. He seems so interesting.”

 

“I can’t even deal with you right now.”

 

Rey playfully hit his shoulder. “Oh, come on, I’m not allowed to talk about a guy for two minutes, but I have to listen to you go on and on about Poe Dameron 24/7? Give me a break.”

 

Suddenly, Rey heard a loud thump echo from the top of the stairwell. “Ow, fuck,” someone said.

 

Rey turned back to see someone laying in a heap at the bottom of the previous flight of stairs. “Holy shit, are you okay?” She rushed over, and without thinking, grabbed his hand and helped him to his feet.

 

Suddenly she realized she was standing face-to-face with the model, Ben. Well, chin-to-face. He was slightly taller than her. She hadn’t recognized him at first, considering now he was actually wearing clothes. His features were even better up close, Rey noticed. She also noticed a slight blush creeping up his cheeks. He closed his eyes, shaking his head slightly. “I can’t believe I just fell down the stairs,” he said.

 

“It happens to everyone,” Rey assured him, trying not to stutter.

 

“Not everyone chasing after a girl, though,” he said with a laugh.

 

Instinctively, she looked around. “Oh, who are you chasing a…” Her words trailed off as she saw there was no one besides her and Finn in the stairwell, and realized who he was talking about. Now it was her turn to blush. “Oh.”

 

Ben looked at the ground. “…And I just came out and said that. Real subtle.” He sighed, and looked up to meet her eyes again. “I’m sorry this is such a train wreck. I just had to catch up to you and ask you, do you think it would be awkward if we went out for coffee considering you’ve already seen me naked?”

 

Rey couldn’t help but laugh. “Yes.”

 

“What?”

 

“I mean, no. No, it won’t be awkward,” Rey said through another laugh. “Yes, I will go out for coffee with you.”

 

He looked relieved. “I’m Ben, by the way. Although you probably already knew that.”

 

“I’m Rey. It’s lovely to meet you.”

 

Ben smiled. “You don’t happen to have some sort of writing utensil, do you? Like a pen?”

 

Rey pulled her bag off of her shoulder and searched through, pulling out a blue ballpoint pen and handing it to him. “I go to art school. If I didn’t have at least a pen, I’d probably be doing something wrong.”

 

Ben reached for her hand. “May I?” Rey offered her hand to him, and he clicked the pen, carefully writing a phone number on the inside of her wrist. He finished, and gave the pen back to her.

 

“I’ll see you around, Rey,” he said, smiling at her before continuing down the stairs. He gave her one final glance before going through the door, leaving Rey still standing in the stairwell, holding the pen, looking completely bewildered.

 

Finn started to laugh from the bottom of the stairs. “Oh my _god_.”


End file.
